Aharon Aviram

Homeschooling as a Fundamental Change in Lifestyle.

This paper discusses home education (homeschooling) in Israel. The first section reviews the legal situation, the scope and the current status of homeschooling in Israel. The second section presents data from qualitative research conducted in Israel, which shows, among other things, that homeschooling is perceived by those who practice it as a solution to several problems in different areas of life. This solution generates a total change in lifestyle, i.e. a paradigmatic change. This change is described primarily at two levels – on the one hand it is a process of heightened awareness and a willingness to take responsibility for different areas of life such as childrens education, health, employment and self-fulfilment; and on the other hand it is also a trigger for taking a more flexible and easy-going approach to life. The third section discusses two attitudes towards homeschooling: (a) as a pedagogical move which emphasises parental involvement in their childrens education (a common approach to homeschooling); and (b) as a holistic phenomenon that relates to changes in lifestyle of those who homeschool (as seen in the study presented here). The paper suggests that while these two attitudes can be researched separately, they are both important in order to gain a meaningful understanding of homeschooling.

The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Education: the missing discourse between three different paradigms

Using a new methodological tool, the authors analyzed a large number of texts on information and communication technology (ICT) and education, and identified three clusters of views that guide educationists ‘in the field’ and in more academic contexts. The clusters reflect different fundamental assumptions on ICT and education. The authors argue that these clusters represent three different paradigms, which they term the technocrat, the reformist and the holistic. They further argue that despite the burgeoning literature on the merger of ICT and education, discourse between the three paradigms is surprisingly limited. Given the doubtful results of the computerization of education, they suggest that identification of these paradigms would promote an essential discussion, vital for better future policies.

Non‐lococentric Education

Abstract The first section demonstrates the non‐desirability of the unity principle of time and space in schooling from the perspective of the five most widely discussed aims of the educational system—the three explicit aims: the enhancement of learning, sociability and autonomy, and the two ‘tacit’ aims: socialisation of students into the labour force and the provision of baby‐sitting services to parents. In the second section the non‐desirability of the principle is demonstrated from the perspective of a less widely discussed function of the educational system: the propagation of socially sacred norms and categories of thought. Three groups of such norms or categories that could be used to justify the domination of the unity principle are discussed. Since the impact of these on post‐modern Western society is declining, they are no longer functional. In the third section, a further defence of the unity principle is examined on the basis of a fourth group of sacred norms and categories (referred to as the...

In defence of personal autonomy as a fundamental educational aim in Liberal Democracies: a response to Hand

This paper responds to Michael Hands argument in ‘Against autonomy as an educational aim’ (Oxford Review of Education, 32, 535–550), refutes it and identifies two faults at its foundation. Through this criticism, the paper makes a substantiated case, both theoretical and empirical, for endorsing the value of education for autonomy as a major goal of education in Liberal Democracies today.

Education and life’s meaning

There are deep connections between education and the question of lifes meaning, which derive, ultimately, from the fact that, for human beings, how to live—and therefore, how to raise ones children—is not a given but a question. One might see the meaning of life as constitutive of the meaning of education, and answers to the question of lifes meaning might be seen as justifying (a particular form of) education. Our focus, however, lies on the contributory relation: our primary purpose is to investigate whether and how education might contribute to childrens ability to find meaning in life or at least deal with the question. This issue is not only theoretically interesting (though relatively neglected)—it also has practical urgency. For people have a need for meaning that, if unfulfilled, leads to personal and potentially social crises—a need that often expresses itself first and strongly in adolescence; and there are reasons to have doubts about the contribution of todays traditional formal education system to the meaningfulness of childrens (and future adults’) lives. We argue for the importance of frameworks of values, as well as for a greater emphasis on the affective dimension of meaning, though we reject pure subjectivism. The underlying purpose of this article, however, is not to argue for a particular comprehensive position, but to persuade philosophers of education of the importance of the issue of lifes meaning in thinking about education today.

The Merger of ICT and Education: Should it Necessarily be an Exercise in the Eternal Recurrence of the Reinvention of the Wheel?

The chapter defences the claim that there is no systematic rational discussion on the issue of the integration of ICT and education and therefore no rationally sustained strategy or strategies at its basis. It further defences the claim that such a discussion can and should be developed. The paper starts by defending the claim that within the ranks of educators and professionals the issue of the merger of ICT and education is based on three blatantly opposed paradigms (first section). It then proceeds to support our assertion that no discourse exists among the adherents of these three paradigms whose field of view is limited by its own “tunnel vision” (second section), that such a debate is vital for the future of Western educational systems and societies (third section) and that free and open deliberation is socially and epistemologically possible (fourth section). The chapter ends by discussing the questions on the boundaries of the desired discourse, the reasons for its non-existence and on the steps that need to be taken.

Why Should Children go to School

In the first part of this chapter I defend the claim that most thinking on ICT and education is presently taking place within technocratic discourses. These discourses are means-oriented, ignoring the basic-values or aims questions, and focus on small-scale issues disconnected from the whole picture. I further claim that it is vital (for the health and survival of postmodern Western societies) to complement this kind of discourses with macro-strategic discourses. Such discourses should “go deeper and wider” (to paraphrase on a sentence by A. Hargreaves). They should start with the search for the most basic grand visions, (also) supplying answers to the question in the title, and systematically refer, in their light, to all aspects of the educational process: ICT and education being one of the most important among them. In the second part I supply the reader with an example of such strategic thinking — the conception of the computerization of the Israeli system recommended to the Israel Ministry of Education in 2002 by a committee chaired by myself.

Homeschooling — The Choice and the Consequences

During the last few hundred years, education has been the duty of the state which, with the help of legislation such as the Law for Compulsory Education and the establishment of a state education system, has ensured that the vast majority of children attend school.

The Abnormality of Modern Education Systems in Postmodern Democracies and Its Implications for Philosophy of Education

This chapter substantiates the claim that most contemporary Western systems of compulsory education are not unlike a man suffering from an undiagnosed disease whose condition is worsening because of the dozens of conflicting remedies forced on his failing body by dozens of uncoordinated physicians. Each of the “treatments” is designed to address the disease, but a single symptom further aggravates the situation and in turn enhances the zeal of the healers, as well as the pace of treatments, and the vicious cycle continues. The ailments in the fable are the variety of chronic failures characterizing contemporary education systems. The proverbial healers are the variety of reformers and “change experts” who are busy initiating one series of change processes after the other, most of which only end up exacerbating the root cause of the problem; the system’s “DNA” is the result of the combination of elements which were added to it in various periods during the last 2,500 years. None of these elements are relevant to individuals’ and systems’ functioning and surviving in the postmodern era. The system is therefore dysfunctional and counterproductive (Sects. “The Primary Illness: Diagnosis” and “The Secondary Illness: Diagnosis”). Having made this foundational argument, the chapter proceeds to claim that only a complete overhaul in rethinking of education, in a systematic methodological fashion, can adapt contemporary education to postmodern Western democracies (Sect. “The prognosis”). It ends by claiming that these diagnoses and prognoses have at least two important implications for the philosophy of education today (Sect. “Implications for Philosophy of Education”).

When the Virtual Meets Virtue: From E-Learning to E-Education

iClass is a pioneering integrated project, funded under the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission (Directorate-General Information Society). Dr. Matthias Utesch was invited to join iclass as a member of the Core Advisory Board. He is lecturing at the department 07: Computer Science and Mathematics. Together with his students and pupils from Bavarian schools he founded the elearning portal “PSH” (project school/ higher education) as a test and show case for the new e-learning portal ZePeLin for Bavarian universities.